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CfiE«?IGlCT DEPOSIT. 



THE PALACE 
MADE BY MUSIC 



Copyright 1910 
The Bobbs-Merrill Company 



75 3^4 

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THE PALACE 
MADE BY MUSIC 




ANY hundreds of years 
ago there was a king- 
dom in a distant country, 
ruled by a good king who was 
known everywhere to be rich and 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 



M 



powerful and great. But 
although the capital was a 
large and beautiful city, and 
the king was surrounded by 
nobles and princes almost 
as rich and powerful as 
he, there was one very 
strange thing noticed by 
every one who came into 
the kingdom: the king 
had no palace. He lived 
in a plain house near the 
edge of the city, not half 
so large or fine looking 
as many of those belong- 
ing to his subjects. And 
he had lived there for a 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 



good many years. Of course 
there was a reason why the 
kingdom had no palace. It 
had not always been so. 
Years before, in the reign 
of the present king's 
father, there had stood in 
the midst of the capital 
city perhaps the most 
beautiful palace in the 
world. It was a very old 
building — so old that no 
one knew when it had 
been built; and it was 
so large that, although 
people often tried to 
count the number of 



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THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 




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rooms it contained, they always grew 
tired before they had finished. The 
walls were of white marble, with splen- 
did columns on all four sides and, 
behind the columns, in spaces cut into 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 




the marble walls, 
were pictures in bright 
colors that people came from distant 
countries to see. No one knew who 
had built the palace, or painted the 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 

pictures on its walls; for it had been 
the treasure of the kings and people 
of the kingdom for a longer time than 
their history told anything about. 

Then, when the present king was 
but a little child, the palace had been 




destroyed. On a festival day, when the 
royal family and the greater part of 
the citizens were marching in a 
procession outside the city, there had 
come a great earthquake. All over the 
kingdom the people heard the rumbling 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 



and felt the ground shaking around 
them, but they had no idea what a 
terrible thing had happened, until they 

came to the city. 
Then they found 
that the earth had 




opened and swal- 
lowed up the pal- 
ace in one great 
crash. Not so much as a single block 
of the marble remained. The crumbled 
earth fell into the opening, covering 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 




the ruins out of sight, 
and leaving a great 
rough piece of ground 
like that in a desert, 
instead of the beau- 
tiful spot that had 
always been there in the center 
of the city. 
Every one felt thankful, first of all, 
that the king and all his family had 
been outside the building w^hen the 
earthquake came, but in spite of this 
they could not help mourning deeply 
over the loss of the palace. The king 
himself was so saddened by it that he 
grew old much sooner tnan he would 
otherwise have done, and died not 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 




many years later. It 
seemed useless to try 
to build another 
palace that would 
satisfy those who had 
seen the splendor of 
the old one, and no one 
tried. When the young 
prince became king, al- 
though he could not remember how 
the palace looked in which he had 
been born, yet he had heard so much 
of its beauty that he mourned over its 
loss as deeply as his father, and would 
not allow any of his nobles or coun- 
selors to propose such a thing as the 
building of a new one. So he con- 




tinned to live 
house near the 
city, never go- 
great empty 
center of the 
this was how he 
only king in 
out a palace. 



in the plain 
outskirts of the 
ing near the 
space in the 
capital. And 
came to be the 
the world with- 
But although 



every one agreed that it was useless to 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 

try to build a new palace in the way 
in which other buildings were made, 
there were always some who hoped for 
a new one which should be no less 
splendid than the old. The reason for 
this was a strange legend that was 
written in the oldest books of the 
kingdom. This legend related that the 
beautiful old palace had been made in 
a single day, not having been built at 
all, but having been raised up by the 
sound of music. In those early days, 
it was said, there was music far more 
wonderful than any now known. Men 
had forgotten about it, little by little, 
as they grew more interested in other 
things. Indeed, every one believed 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 



yo-. 



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that there had been a time 
when, by the sound of 
music, men could tame wild 
beasts and make flowers 
bloom in desert places, and 
mov^e heavy stones and trees. 
But whether it was really 
true that the great palace had 
been made in this way — this 
was not so certain. There 
were some, however, who 
believed the legend with all 
their hearts, and they had 
hopes that a new palace 
might be made as beautiful 
as the one destroyed by the 
earthquake. For, they said, 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 



what has been done 
can be done again. If 
it is really true that a 
great musician made 
the old palace, it may 
be that some day we 
shall find a musician 
who can make another. 
The musicians, of 
course, were especially 
interested in the old 
legend, and many a 
one of them made up 
his mind to try to equal 
the music of the earlier 
time. Often you might 
pass by the edge of the 




THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 

waste place where the old palace had 
stood, and see some musician playing 
there. He had, perhaps, been working 
for years on a tune which he hoped 
would be beautiful enough to raise a 
new palace from the ruins of the old. 
In those days men played on lyres or 
harps, or on flutes and pipes made of 
reeds that grew by the water-side; there 
were no organs, no orchestras, and no 
choirs. So the musicians came alone, 
one by one, and played their loveliest 
music, not minding that those who 
passed by often laughed at them for 
believing that anything would come of 
it; for they did not mind being 
laughed at when they had hope of such 




great glory as the maker of a palace 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 

would surely win. This went on year 
by year, until the young king grew to 
be almost as old as his father had been 
when he died, but no musician as great 
as those of the earlier time was found. 
Now there lived in the city a boy 
named Agathon, who wished to be a 
musician. He had played on the lyre 
ever since he was old enough to carry 
it, and there was no boy in the king- 
dom who could make sweeter music. 
Agathon had also a friend named 
Philo, who was as fond as he of play- 
ing on the lyre. They used often to 
talk together of the days when they 
should learn to play so well that they 
would dare to go, like the other 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 



musicians, and try 
to raise a new 
palace. 

*'I am sure it 
will be you who 
will finally do it," 
Philo would say to 
Agathon. 

''No," the other 
would answer, "I 
shall try, but by that 
time I am sure you 
will play a great deal 
better than I. And 
if it is one of us, we 



-V5»^^3 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 




are such good friends 
that it will not mat- 
ter which." 

One day the two 
boys made a discov- 
ery. It happened that 
;5^: Agathon was playing on his 
lyre, when Philo, coming in to 
see him, heard the tune, and was so 
delighted with it that he cried, ''I 
must try to play it, too." So he ran 
for his own lyre, and presently began 
to play before Agathon had finished. 
He did not strike the same notes that 
Agathon did, but other notes a little 
lower in the scale; and instead of 
making discord, the different notes 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 




sounded so sweedy 
together that both 
the boys looked up 
in surprise. 

''This is a new 
kind of music," said 
Agathon, ''and I think it 
is better than when either 
you or I play alone." So 
they tried to play in this way a number 
of different tunes. 

When they had done this for a time 
they had another thought. "If two 
different notes played together are 
more beautiful than one," said Philo, 
"why may not three be more beautiful 
than two?" 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 




(( 



Sure enough!" said Agathon. "And 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 

what is more, it may be that in this 
way people could make music as fine 
as that by which the palace was made." 

Having once formed this idea, the 
two boys were eager that it should be 
tried. So they went at once to one of 
the chief musicians of the city, with 
whom they were acquainted, and told 
him what they had discovered by play- 
ing their two instruments together. 
Then they suggested that he should 
take a friend with him — or perhaps 
even two friends — to the place where 
the palace had stood, and try what 
could be done by the new music. 

The musician was interested in what 
they said, but he shook his head. 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 

"It would be of no use," he said. 
"There is no musician who has not 
tried already, and it is foolish to think 
that two or three of us could play 
together better than we can separately. 
Besides, each of us wants the glory of 
making the new palace for himself, and 
if we did it together no one would be 
satisfied." 

"Would it not be enough," asked 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 



Agathon, "to have 
the pleasure of 
making it for the 
king, even if no 
one knew w^ho had 
done it at all?" 

"No," said the 
musician, "if I do 
it I w^ant to do it by 
myself and have the 
glory of it." And 
when the boys spoke 
to other musicians, 
they said very much 
the same thing. But 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 



M 



Agathon and Philo were 
not discouraged. First of 
all they looked for still 
another player; and when 
they heard of a crippled 
boy who lived not far 
away, and who was said 
to be very fond of music, 
they asked him to join 
them. He was very much 
surprised when they told 
him that they wanted him 
to learn to play his lyre 
at the same time that 
they played theirs, and 
yet not to play the same 
notes. But presently he 



1/ 



THEiPALACE MADE BY MUSIC 

learned to do it, striking 
notes a little lower in the 
scale than either Agathon or 
Philo; and when all three 
made music together, they 
were sure it was the most 
beautiful sound they had 
ever heard. 

''Let us go and play at 
the place of the palace ! ' ' 
said Philo. ''It will do 
no harm to try.'' 

As the next day was a 
holiday, and they had 
planned nothing else to 
do, it was agreed. They 
rose very early in the 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 

morning, before any of the crowds of 
the city would be on the streets, took 
their lyres under their arms, and made 
their way toward the place of the old 
palace, helping the crippled boy as 
they walked. 

When they were near the place, they 
met a sad-looking man coming away. 
He, too, was evidently a musician, for 
he had a lyre under his arm. But he 
seemed to be a stranger in the city, 
and the boys stopped to ask him why 
he was so sad. 

"I have come a long way," he said, 
"because I wanted to try the skill of 
my lyre with the musicians of your 
city, and see whether I could not prove 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 

myself as great a master as the one 
who made your lost palace. But I 
have tried, and have done no better 
than any of the rest." 

''Do not be sad about it, then," 
said Agathon, "but turn about and 
,Ty once more with us. For you have 
a larger lyre, with heavy strings, and 

have thought that if we could add 
to our three kinds of notes another still 
farther down the scale, the music 
would sound more beautiful than ever. 
Come with us, and listen when we 
play; then perhaps you will see how 
to join in and help us." 

So the stranger turned about and 
went with the three boys to the place 




of the 
Now the 
supposed 



palace, 
boys had 
that, as 



it was so early in the morning, they 
would be the only ones there. But it 
happened that a great many musicians^ 
had felt, like them, that the morning 
of the holiday would be a very good 
time to make another trial of their 
instruments, and had also thought, like 




com ing 
would 



that by 
early they 
not be 



interrupted by the crowds. So when 
the three boys and the stranger came 
to the street that looked into the place 
of the palace, they found it almost 
filled with musicians, some carrying 
lyres, like themselves, and some with 
harps or flutes or other instruments. 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 




It was all very quiet, 
however, since no 
one cared to try his 
skill at playing before 
all the rest; for every 
musician was jealous 
of the others. After they had 
looked about for a few minutes, 
and had seen why it was that so many 
were there and yet that there was no 
music, Philo said: 

''Let us begin to play, Agathon. It 
can do no harm, and perhaps we can 
really show these musicians how much 
better music can be made by playing 
together, than by each one playing for 
himself. ' ' 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 




''Very well," said 
Agathon. "Let us 
begin." 

So they took up 
their lyres and began 
to play them to- 
gether as they had learned 
to do; and presently the 
stranger, whom they had 
brought with them, touched the strings 
of his lyre very softly, to see if he 
could find deep notes that would 
sound sweetly with those of the boys. 
It was not long before he did so, and 
when he began really to play with 
them, and the four lyres sounded in 
concert, it seemed to Agathon that he 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 

heard for the first time the music of 
which he had been dreaming all 
his life. 

Now the other musicians who were 
standing by in silence were listening 
with the greatest surprise, for they had 
never heard any music like this in all 
their lives. After a little time, one 
and another of them, seeing that it 
was possible to play at the same time 
with others, took up his instrument 
and began to join the tune that the 
four were playing, for the tune itself 
was known to all of them, being the 
chief national song of the kingdom. 
So there spread from one musician to 
another the desire to take a part in 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 

this strange new music, until hardly 
any were left who could keep from 
taking up their instruments and joining 
in one part or another of what the 
others were playing. And there went 
up a great mingled sound that swept 
over the whole part of the city where 
they stood, and seemed to fill all the 
air with music. Playing in this way, all 
the musicians together, it happened at 
last that, as they grew more and more 
joyful with the sound, they struck a 
great chord, so much more beautiful 
than any thing they had ever heard 
before, that they held it for a long 
time, not wishing to change this sound 
fo" any other, and looking at one 




another with eyes full of wonder and 




happiness. And as they did so, there 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 

came into the volume of music the 
sound of great shouting, for men who 
had gathered in the streets to listen to 
the players were calling — "Look, look! 
The palace! the palace!" And when 
all the people turned their eyes to the 
great empty space which had lain 
waste for so long, they saw a wonderful 
sight. The earth was breaking away, 
almost as though another earthquake 
were pushing it, and out of the midst 
of it were rising great walls of white 
marble, that lifted themselves higher 
and higher, until there stood in the 
morning sunshine a new palace of as 
perfect beauty as men had ever dreamed 
of in the old one. All these years it 



THE PALACE MADE BY MUSIC 

had waited for that great chord of 
music to lift it out of the earth, and 
at last it had come. 

This, as I have heard the story, is 
the way in which men learned to make 
music together, instead of playing and 
singing each for himself. And this is 
the way in which the new palace was 
made for the king who had been so 
long without one. But no one quite 
knew who had done it, so the 
musicians forgot their jealousies of one 
another, and all the people rejoiced 
together. And if there has not been 
another earthquake, I suppose the new 
palace must be standing yet. 



m 9 1913 



t' 



7 



fillllimUUIBHI 



lUIIIIIUim 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



018 6044368Jfc 



